


decorations of red on a green christmas tree

by Lire_Casander



Series: snowed in [7]
Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: 12 Days of Tarlos 2020, Fluff, M/M, Slice of Life, Stress Baking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:46:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28238664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lire_Casander/pseuds/Lire_Casander
Summary: tk comes back home to a sight he wasn’t expecting
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand
Series: snowed in [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2056038
Comments: 6
Kudos: 66
Collections: Twelve Days of Tarlos 2020





	decorations of red on a green christmas tree

**Author's Note:**

> beta’ed by [meloingly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/meloingly). any remaining mistakes are my own
> 
> title from _blue christmas_ , hanson’s version
> 
> written for [12 days of tarlos 2020](https://buckieys.tumblr.com/post/631968766900797440/12-days-of-tarlos-dec-14-25), **_day 9: stress baking_**

TK thanks his Uber driver before opening the door of the car and stepping outside, grabbing his duffel bag and the plastic bag where he’s placed the cake box he’s picked up from Nothing Bundt Cakes as a surprise for Carlos. They’ve been too busy to see each other as much as they would have loved to the past week — the days leading up to the holidays are always the most hectic of the whole year, with the honorable exception of full moon nights. He wants to surprise his boyfriend on their last night alone before both their families come barging in for Christmas Eve — they will be spending the night at his dad’s, exchanging gifts with his mom, and then they will be heading out to San Antonio to spend Christmas Day with Carlos’ family. 

TK can’t say he isn’t nervous about that last bit, maybe more than he is when he thinks of his mom and his dad under the same roof for two whole days — his mom will be flying out to New York on Boxing Day to get ready for some case or the other, always the busiest lawyer in the city. But he’s going to officially meet all of Carlos’ family at once on Christmas Day, and TK doesn’t know how that will go. Sure, he’s met them in bits and pieces before — Carlos’ mother Irene when she came down to take care of Carlos after the accident where he broke his arm, and Carlos’ sister Laura when she had to make a stop-over on her way back to Atlanta. But TK hasn’t spent that much time with them, and he’s yet to meet Carlos’ father. It’s not that he can’t handle meeting the in-laws, which he has done his fair share of times before — but it’s the first time he feels that creating a good impression is important. Because Carlos is the most important person in his life, and TK wants Carlos’ family to accept him, with his flaws and his sins, even though he knows that’s nearly impossible. It hasn’t happened before, with anyone. But then again, he has never met anyone like Carlos Reyes before.

He’s never felt a love so immense like he does for Carlos.

He opens the door to their apartment with his free hand, and the first thing he notices is the smell — sweet and savory, something that reminds him of his childhood spent in between Christmas cookies and marzipan. He smiles. “Carlos!” he calls out, balancing the cake box in his hand in order for it not to fall over. “I’m home!”

“In the kitchen!” he hears back, and there he heads, chuckling because Carlos really needed to reassure him of his whereabouts as though the smell alone hadn’t given it away. He saunters happily, cake box in hand, ready to put it in the fridge and order some Indian just like they planned so many days ago.

“What are you making? It smells delicious!” he says as he steps into the kitchen, only to be met with a sight that he hadn’t been expecting.

Carlos is standing next to the kitchen island, completely covered in flour and what looks like dough on his cheek, kneading something with his eyebrows knitted together as he works. All the countertops around the kitchen look like Christmas has already exploded on them — there are oven trays full of cookies, and TK can spy some apple pies and a couple of trays full to the brim of cupcakes. There’s even one bar of what looks like homemade chocolate nougat that TK can’t keep his eyes off.

“Sweetie?” he says in a tentative voice. “What’s all this?”

“I, ahm, I’ve been baking,” Carlos replies, slightly shrugging his right shoulder as he keeps on kneading. “Now I’m making a gingerbread house.”

TK carefully places the cake box he’s brought home on a clear spot on one of the counters before he comes to stand at the other end of the kitchen island, somewhat in front of Carlos. He’s actually working on what looks like a gingerbread house — he already has three out of four walls spread on an oven plate, and the ingredients to decorate the roof are already on a different tray. 

“That much I can see,” he says, smiling as he leans in to drop a kiss on Carlos’ rebel curls falling onto his forehead. “But, honey—” He trails off as he brushes a couple of curls away from Carlos’ line of sight.

“Yeah?”

“How many of _these_ have you made?” TK asks in a high-pitch squeal, gesturing around them to the place overflowing with baked goods. “Why have you even made five full trays of Christmas cookies?”

“I don’t know, I got a bit carried away baking for tomorrow,” Carlos tells him, lifting his gaze to look around him. He blushes when he takes in the sheer number of trays around, but he frowns at the Nothing Bundt Cake box. “What’s that?”

“That’s a surprise I got you,” TK explains. “But that doesn’t answer my question. You’ve made enough food to last us a whole year!” Carlos looks down and mumbles something that TK doesn’t catch. “Care to repeat that?”

“I said, I didn’t know what your mom would like so I made a bit of everything. I wanted to impress her.”

“First, this isn’t a _bit_ of everything, this is the whole bakery home! And second, my mom’s already impressed by you. Please don’t tell me you’ve baked every single Christmas dessert recipe you know because you were stressed about having Christmas Eve dinner with my parents.” When Carlos doesn’t say anything in reply, just looks down and keeps kneading the dough, TK chuckles. “You already know my mom! And you work with my dad on a daily basis!”

“I don’t _know_ your mom. She came down after you were shot for a week to take care of you, so that doesn’t count! We didn’t even live together back then!”

Before TK can retaliate, the oven timer goes off with a loud beeping sound. Carlos tries to get away but TK beats him to it and reaches the oven in time to lean in and peer through the window. “Is that _roscón_?” TK marvels. “Carlos Reyes, have you made _roscón_ for my parents? That takes five hours _at least_!”

Carlos blushes even more violently than before. “Don’t say it like that,” he mumbles. “I just want this Christmas to be perfect.”

TK takes pity on his boyfriend and hugs him before he can get to the _roscón_ in the oven. He hadn’t realized how stressed Carlos had been about the whole ordeal of spending Christmas with TK’s family, and it makes him feel a little bit less awkward about the dozen gifts he’s wrapped and packed already for Carlos’ family. “Carlos, don’t stress about it. They already love you. They will absolutely _adore_ you after this, mom has a sweet tooth that not even I can rival! And,” he adds conspiratorially, “you’re not the only one stressed about this. I’ve stress-bought all your family’s Christmas gifts, and now I have about three different options for each one of you when I know we said only one but—”

Carlos silences him with a kiss. “I guess we’ve both been a bit nervous about this,” he confesses with a low chuckle. TK nods and kisses him again.

“What are we going to do with all these pastries?”

Carlos laughs again, kissing the top of TK’s nose. “We’ll eat them, tomorrow. But for now, I need to get that _roscón_ out before it gets too crusty.”

TK squeezes him tightly before he lets go of Carlos, sighing and leaning against the counter as he watches his boyfriend work around the kitchen. Now, he has the feeling that this will be the merriest Christmas so far, if only because he gets to spend it with Carlos Reyes.

**Author's Note:**

> fun facts about writing this fic!
> 
> * the cake tk brings home comes from the real [nothing bundt cakes](https://www.nothingbundtcakes.com/) in austin!
> 
> * a [roscón de reyes](https://www.demoslavueltaaldia.com/sites/default/files/styles/recetas_listado/public/roscon.jpg?itok=lSVV0IeO) is a spanish typical sweet for three wise men day, and i wanted to bring something from my own culture into this fic so bad, i made it happen!


End file.
